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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1625041-CORN-MAZE
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by mrod Author IconMail Icon
Rated: · Short Story · Mystery · #1625041
murder mystery


Michael Rodrigues
CORN MAZE

I would like to introduce private eye, Neil. This private dick was born in Toronto,Canada and came to Rhode Island in 1980. Neil is not very organized, but has a keen sense for detective work. He has many good traits which include a very good personality, doesn’t drink or smoke, and had a very good upbringing. He started his business in Toronto, but settled in Rhode Island while investigating a case. Neil is very laid back person, who likes to dress in jeans, and a t-shirt. If you saw his apartment you would never know his profession, because of his messiness and clutter of case files. He only shaves once a week, and gets a haircut when needed--not bad for a 50 year old hockey fan.
A corn maze is usually a fun place for people to bring their families and enjoy the autumn air. In Swansea, Massachusetts there are businesses, a quaint population, and some farmland. There is one particular farm on Route 6 that has a corn maze set up for family entertainment.There is not much traffic on this highway but enough to attract people to the maze. While driving through Swansea, people can enjoy the autumn colors, and visit the corn maze while passing through. This town has a moderate population, and has its share of farmland. One would never expect a murder in a family-oriented corn maze attraction.
On a crisp autumn day, Neil decided to get corn on the cob from one of the farms on Route 6. While he was pulling into the farm, he noticed a line of people waiting their turn to walk through a corn maze. He thought to himself, what is the attraction of these corn mazes? So he decided to find out himself, and stood in line with the rest of the crowd to find out. While in line a worker nervously looked at Neil and said, "You're the last one for the day pal." Neil looked at the worker strangely and just nodded. At last, he was getting closer to the entrance. When it was his turn, he proceeded to go through the maze following the trails thinking, "this is boring." At one of the maze splits, Neil decided to take a left instead of going right like everyone else. Now, he is nervously on his own wandering through all kinds of twists and turns. At one point, he begins to smell a foul odor.Thinking it was fertilizer, but boy was he wrong. Within two feet in front of him after smelling the odor, Neil trips over a dead body landing right next to it. What a feeling of disgust he felt lying next to a decapitated body. "Why did I even think about doing this?" thought Neil. Slowly getting up and dusting himself off, Neil notices the body is also missing an arm and leg. Panicking, Neil starts to run and yells for help. Within a few minutes, the nervous corn maze worker, he had seen earlier showed up unexpectedly behind him to escort him out. Neil showed him the body, he had found and the worker responded "I'll take care of it. Now let's get you out of here!"
On his way out Neil noticed some footprints were deeper than others. Some of the corn stalks were broken or damaged. "We are not leaving the same way I came in" thought Neil. Blood was splattered on some of the corn stalks and on the ground. "Where are you taking me?" asked Neil. The worker responded "Don't worry about it, we'll be out soon." Now, Neil saw another person taking a machette to some of the corn stalks. He asked the worker ,"Who's that?" The worker responded, " That my friend is the farm owner's son." As he looked back to the owner's son he noticed that he's at least six feet tall and a little bit on the heavy side. Now he saw a possible exit to this situation, but the worker took another path.

Neil was starting to get a little worried. "Why haven't we left this maze yet?" thought Neil. The worker continues to take the long way out. "Hey pal, what's the deal? Where's the exit to this place?" Neil asked the worker. "I'm trying to get you out of here in one piece, trust me buddy" responded the worker. The worker continued to sweat and look very nervously at Neil. Finally, Neil saw an exit approaching. He decided to run ahead of the worker to be the first one out. While passing by the worker, Neil noticed that he had some kind of stain all over his clothes and hands. At last both men finally got out of the maze and walk towards the barn. As they approached the barn, the farm owner came out and said, "Who the hell are you?" pointing to Neil. "Never mind that" responded Neil, "you have a dead body in that maze in the same area where your son was working!" "What son?" responded the owner, looking wide eyed at his worker. Neil slowly reaches into his pocket for his cell phone or maybe a weapon, when suddenly the worker grabbed Neil's arm.

The worker looked at Neil angrily and said "keep your mouth shut son." Our private eye is now totally confused. "Who are these people?" thought Neil, "How am I going to get out of this mess?" Then suddenly, a large gust of wind came, stirring up a large cloud of dust from the dirt. Out of the cloud appeared what Neil thought was the farm owners son. He started to growl and came towards Neil and the other two with a machette. Now panic starts to kick in. "If that's not your son then who the hell is that?" asked Neil. The owner screams "I don't know!" Now all three men started to walk backwards in a fast manner as the killer continued towards them screaming and waving his machette frantically. There's what looks to be dried blood on this machette. The owner trips over a rock and falls. Now the killer stood over the owner's body pointing his machette at him and yelling some biblical phrases only a priest could understand. "Please God help me!" yelled the farm owner. At this point the farm worker yelled " no Charlie not again!" Neil looked at this guy and said "what the #&*@!

At this point, Neil looked for a weapon that he could use on the killer to save the helpless owner on the ground. There it was, a large tree branch on the ground that can be used as a weapon. Neil ran towards it and picked it up. Now, Neil started to approach Charlie, the killer, waving his weapon he just found like he was some kind of ninja. Charlie, looked confused, is now focused on Neil instead of the owner. Neil began to hit Charlie with his stick knocking the machette out of his hands. Neil picked up the machette and stabbed Charlie a couple of times. The worker screams out "No leave my friend alone!" Neil turned, looked at the worker and said, "Shut up or you'll be next!" At this point Charlie fell to his knees bleeding but very much still alive. Meantime the owner crawled toward his house. Neil turned to Charlie, to stab him again, but Charlie grabbed the machette out of his hands. Neil used his athleticism to kick the machette out of Charlie's hand. They both dove for the machette and Neil came out of the scuffle with the machette. He stabbed Charlie one more time, thinking "What's it going to take to kill this guy?" Charlie is now bent over moaning but not dead just yet. Out of danger for now, Neil backed up a few steps to ponder his next move.

"Who or what is this guy?" thought Neil, "How am I going to kill this guy?" At this point the owner of the farm walked out of his house carrying a shot gun. "Get out of the way, boy!" screamed the owner. Neil dove out of the way as the owner shot Charlie twice, completely taking his head off. Now, Charlie is dead. You see that's the only way you can kill a zombie. Charlie was a friend of the farm worker, and he was also a brutal killer that survived by eating corn. When there was no corn, Charlie lived under the ground. "Wow!" thought Neil, "What a day, all of this because of my curiousity!" At this point the police arrived. Neil explained the whole story to the police and what had happened. Wait, where is the farm worker? Neil looked franticaly for him, but had no luck finding him. He ran to the farm owner grabbed his shirt and asked, "Where is your helper?" The owner replied, "I don't know!" As they both looked back into the corn maze nervously
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